Someone To Lend a Helping Hand: Older Rural Women as Recipients and Providers of Care.

Shenk, Dena

A major focus in the literature on rural aging has been the dearth of formal services available in rural areas and the unique features of service delivery in rural communities. It has not generally been recognized that rural older adults are not passive recipients of services and care but rather, active manipulators of social support systems through which they meet their perceived needs and the needs of others in their network. This multi-phase study examined care giving and care receiving by 30 older women. The data collected included life histories, in-depth structured interview and observational data, and network analysis profiles. The results indicated that the participants were both receivers and providers of care. Most of the informants' relationships with family and friends were multiplex. That is, they reported multiple linkages of assistance and care provided to and by individual members of their support networks. These data suggest that most of the informants are firmly entrenched in a strong system of social support. Multiplex relationships are individual relationships in ego's social support system which have more than two reported linkages or connections. The rural older women were clearly involved in social support systems within which they both gave and received support and assistance. (ABL)